Sam Palmisano, Chairman and
CEO of IBM got together with Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell to release
an op-ed piece last week that the government can save $1 Trillion through the
use of IT.Click here for the statement.Jeffrey Zients, Chief Performance Officer,
penned a blog
shortly thereafter titled, “Seeing Eye to Eye with the Tech CEO Council.”

Many of the
examples cited in the Palmisano/Dell statement relate to the use of analytics:

Using predictive
technology, New York
State is validating
tax refund requests and saving $889
million by catching phony refunds.

Identifying suspicious Medicare activity using
analytics has shown North Carolina
how to save $25 million in just three months.

In addition to
helping to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse, I’d like to suggest 3 other ways analytics
can help the government to save money.

Streamlining Processes:Analytics can help streamline and
optimize programs, reducing the costs of implementation while improving
service to citizens.For example,
IBM worked with Social Security to streamline their processing of
disability claims so that the majority of claims can be expedited with
little risk of allowing through unacceptable claims.

Managing Performance:Performance management solutions can
help the management and staff of agencies to know their up-to-date
performance, and quickly spot and trouble-shoot performance issues before
they become major problems. Performance management can also help identify
successful approaches that can be replicated throughout and across
agencies.

Better decision-making: Analytics can help
agencies decide which programs to fund or the most effective
approach to take for a particular program.By using modeling, simulation, and other data-driven approaches,
agency staff can make decisions that both save the tax payers’ money and
deliver the best results.For
example, by modeling and optimizing the US Postal Service transportation
network, USPS is able to increase utilization of assets and save hundreds
of millions of dollars.

I’d like to hear
your ideas for how agencies can save money through employing analytics.Write to me at ascdc@us.ibm.com.

See our website for
further information on using analytics in government:www.ibm.com/ASCdc